The blog for Lone Star linksters - news and notes from the world of Texas Golf.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Boot Ranch and the Louisiana Police Retirement System

Boot Ranch is the name of an upscale development outside of Fredericksburg, the centerpiece of which is supposed to be an ultra-exclusive golf club with membership limited to 300. The course and its surrounding neighborhood of million-dollar homes are being developed by the company of Louisiana native and Texas resident Hal Sutton.

We've written before about Boot Ranch here, here and here. Read those posts in that order to get some good background on the project and its role in the Municipal Police Employees Retirement Systems (MPERS) of Louisiana.

Here's the latest: an outside accounting firm was brought in to take a look at MPERS' finances, and what they discovered is that all three of the Hal Sutton golf developments in which Louisiana police employees' retirement funds are invested are, so far, losers.

Specifically about Boot Ranch, here is what was reported by the Baton Rouge newspaper, the Advocate:

The audit contains little information about the status of Boot Ranch – a 2,200-acre Texas golf resort for which MPERS guaranteed a $30-million line of credit, none of which has been repaid. A page in the report for detailing revenues and operating expenses lists only $5,470 in unspecified revenues.

According to an initial agreement, the upscale development was to have made $27 million in sales by now. Developers have yet to release any specific sales results, but the last announcement in October indicated they have sold eight of the 61 home sites and fewer than 30 of the 300 golf-club memberships. MPERS officials have blamed the situation on delays by the county government in processing documents needed to begin construction.